Home of the picnic for detectives

April 12, 2007 1:29 PM

How to build your very own balsawood crow, the poetry of Dennis Beerpint, Little Severin the Mystic Badger, plus lobster diagrams and of course the Binnacle of the Week await you at Hooting Yard. Celebrated in song and story, Hooting Yard (also a radio show and podcast) is the home of Frank Key, author of such works as Sydney the Bat is Awarded the Order of Lenin and A Complete and Utter History of Norwich.
posted by gamera (10 comments total)

This is very good news. I think maybe it's just what I've been looking for.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:48 PM on April 12, 2007

That's how I feel. I'm not entirely sure what it is that I've found, but I've found it and I've got that old tingling feeling way down in the root of me. Plus binnacles are plenty fuckin' sweet. I'm saving up for one with a couple of brass cup-holders and a scrimshawed grabbin' handle.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:53 PM on April 12, 2007

This is brilliant, thanks! It just made my afternoon far more bearable.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:54 PM on April 12, 2007

"If you are a mendicant, and cannot countenance frittering your paltry beggings on something as inessential as balsa wood, you may have to resort to theft."

Ah, joy! Thank you so much!
posted by The Light Fantastic at 2:04 PM on April 12, 2007

I've decided to make the crow, and have fired off letters to Yoko Ono and Art Garfunkel. I can hardly wait for their replies. Thanks, gamera.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:17 PM on April 12, 2007

I should add that I first encountered Mr. Key as a narrator of this fine science fiction podcast.
posted by gamera at 2:26 PM on April 12, 2007

That was an entertaining read, but am I the only one who was a little disappointed that it didn't actually tell you how to build a balsa-wood crow? At least not in a fashion that you could have an end product that you could show to your wife and say "Look honey, I made this thing instead of cleaning the house! Tell me that you love me!"

So yeah, it was fun but ultimately it didn't give me the thing I need; a lightweight wooden bird.

Or an excuse to not do housework.
posted by quin at 2:41 PM on April 12, 2007

Wow, I used to buy a lot of Frank's stuff back when he was still half of Malice Aforethought Press (motto: "Buy our books, you bastards" or alternatively "Not so much a small press, more an overheated photocopier") including Forty Visits to the Worm Farm, and the stories of Derek the Dust Particle. His partner in toner, Maxim Decharne (author of Beat Your Relatives to a Bloody Pulp) I later worked with at Bizarre magazine. Fun days.
posted by Hogshead at 3:32 PM on April 12, 2007

After roaming the streets today at lunch I found myself in the direct vicinity of balsa wood AND adhesives. I wish this link had been posted before that time. Now I've got nothing to show for myself, as usual.
posted by MrFongGoesToLunch at 3:34 PM on April 12, 2007

Worthy post and thanks for the further info Hogshead. I found the extraordinary Hootingyard a while ago via plep, a Mefite who is also extraordinary but in a much less psylocybinesque way.
posted by peacay at 2:08 AM on April 13, 2007